Choosing to slow down: The art of lingering in the digital age

Our world is becoming increasingly full of content – short-form Tiktok videos, microtrends, things designed to grab our attention. We scroll through endless amounts of information, instantly forgetting whatever it was we just looked at. I often find myself putting my phone down after twenty minutes of doomscrolling having forgotten what I was looking at in the first place. So, admiring art in the way traditionally intended is becoming rarer, which makes it even more important.

Slowing down to engage with art is not only meaningful, but arguably necessary now, in a world digitally overloaded. This is what makes it even more meaningful to stop, take a step back and really linger on what we see.

In this era of social media, we are often so overwhelmed by the constant influx of information that we find ourselves looking at something for half a second and moving on. I have certainly been guilty of visiting an art gallery and taking a few quick snaps of each painting, rushing to upload them to Instagram for a few likes, and never looking back again.

Art is more about what we make of it, how a piece makes us think and feel

But are we really stopping to look at and understand the art we look at? Taking a couple of seconds to really linger on a piece of art can make all the difference, and help us to realise more about ourselves. It isn’t even necessarily about understanding the meaning or intention behind a painting – often, art is more about what we make of it, how a piece makes us think and feel.

I think that in this digital age, it’s even more important to just stop and exist. We often overload our own brains with reading, watching and listening to a million different things, and sometimes we forget to just stop and be with our own thoughts.

In this article by Maryam Ovissi, she discusses the importance of meditation and contemplation, and recommends a practice to relax and ‘quiet the inner critic.’ It is important to take a moment to be present and really ground ourselves in what is going on around us. It is easy to be drawn into the digital world.

Modern museum-going and art consumption often becomes more of a race to get the most Instagrammable shot of a painting, undermining the true potential of art to inspire

Modern museum-going and art consumption often becomes more of a race to get the most Instagrammable shot of a painting, undermining the true potential of art to inspire. In this digital age, physical art has even more relevance and importance.

While the digital age has made art more accessible online, with millions able to explore virtual exhibitions, it isn’t quite the same. Many of us will likely see art on TikTok or Instagram, but can that compare to the depth and presence of seeing a painting in real life?

Stopping to admire and understand paintings can not only help us feel more relaxed, it also has cognitive benefits – it boosts our focus, reduces fatigue and can improve our critical thinking

So, art is rich and thought-provoking. Even science agrees that the digital age cannot replace the timeless relevance of fine art. Stopping to admire and understand paintings can not only help us feel more relaxed, it also has cognitive benefits – it boosts our focus, reduces fatigue and can improve our critical thinking.

Research in the Netherlands, reported by the Guardian, has found that real art in museums can stimulate our brains more than reprints. Volunteers had a reaction 10 times stronger when looking at a real work, solidifying the connection between fine art and our conscious responses.

The mental exhaustion from spending hours typing an essay or scrolling Instagram is real, and can cause a different kind of fatigue. Putting down the phone and moving away from screens is advice given all too often – go outside, for a walk. But it may be even more beneficial to go to an art museum! Being physically present in the moment, without a digital barrier, can help us to slow down and really connect on a deeper level with what we see.

So, the next time I visit an art gallery or museum, I plan to try and give my full attention to the pieces I see. It’s often harder to really notice what we see and how we feel, but lingering can offer us clarity and calm.

Just taking the moment to stop, interpret and think about a painting can give us more of an insight into our own minds than we know. Choosing to slow down is becoming increasingly meaningful, and we should all make the decision to linger more often.